Ahead of the UN Security Council vote, Israel says it is expanding its military operation in Gaza
DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA – DECEMBER 20, 2023: Smoke rises from a point hit during Israeli attacks in Deir El-Balah, Gaza on December 20, 2023. (Photo by Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images).
Israel announced on Friday that it was expanding its military operation in Gaza, at a time when the United States expressed its readiness to support the United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an end to the fighting and an increase in aid to the besieged Strip.
The Israeli military on Friday ordered residents of the Bureij refugee camp in Deir al-Balah and other areas in central Gaza to move to shelters for safety, signaling a new approach to the ground offensive.
So far, the military incursion has largely focused on northern Gaza and parts of the southern side of the city.
Israeli military officials have said they believe they are close to defeating Hamas fighters in Jabalia and the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, the last remaining Hamas strongholds in the north.
A hospital spokesman said that shortly after Friday's warning, an Israeli air strike hit the Bureij refugee camp.
Dr. Khalil Al-Dakran, spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, told CNN that at least three people were killed and 10 others were injured after the attack struck the camp.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council is expected to hold its long-awaited vote on Gaza on Friday, after US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she was ready to support a resolution calling for increased aid to Gaza.
According to the source, the draft talks about “urgent measures to immediately allow safe and unhindered access to humanitarian aid, as well as creating the necessary conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
According to the source, the language used now says “to take urgent measures to enable safe and unimpeded humanitarian access immediately, as well as to create conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
This comes in the context of the rise in the death toll in Gaza since October 7 to about 20,000 people, as the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah announced on Thursday.
The UN-backed food security agency has warned that the risk of famine in the Palestinian enclave is increasing as hostilities continue, while the World Health Organization said there are no functioning hospitals in northern Gaza and that the enclave's entire healthcare system is “at risk.” “
With previous reporting by CNN's Michael Rios, Priscilla Alvarez, DJ Goode and Alex Marquardt.
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